The Cache

by Philip José Farmer

  “But Earth said no. Man did not have enough space for himself. In those days, each man and woman lived a thousand years and bred many children, who also lived a thousand years. So, the Hairy Men from the Stars said that they would make space. And they had a war with men. It was the most horrible war that earth has ever suffered. At its end, all the Hairy Men from the Stars were killed. But the price of victory for humanity was great. Only one in every hundred thousand survived. And the survivors forgot their magic, forgot everything in their battle for survival. They became savages, unhappy fierce men. And only in the last two hundred years has humanity become numerous enough and wise to begin building civilization again.”

  “That is not quite the way I heard it,” said Benoni cautiously. He did not wish to get involved in a religious discussion. “We have never heard of the Hairy Men from the Stars. According to what our preachers say, the demons of earth tried to master men. They did call in the demons of the air to help them, but most of these were captured and also buried with Seytuh under the earth.”

  Lezpet laughed again. She said, “That story, and the one told in my country, is good enough for the common people, children, and fools. They need something they can understand. But I think otherwise. I think that the Hairy Men were people something like us. They lived on a planet like ours, and it revolved around a star, which was a sun to their planet. Something drove them to leave their world; perhaps, their sun got too hot. In any event, they did come to Earth in their vehicles. They asked to be allowed to live on Earth. Man turned down their request, for what reason, I do not know. A war did ensue, and civilization was smashed.

  “But I do not believe in any sun god or earth demon. I do not believe that there is a First God, nor do I believe that Kaywo was founded by the two-headed son of a two-headed bitch wolf.

  “Of course, if you were to repeat this, I would have to deny saying such, and I would have you burned as blasphemers. The best thing to do is to subscribe publicly to the belief. After all, it keeps the people in order. It’s a useful lie, decorative rubbish.”

  Benoni was shocked. He did not believe in a sun god, either. But he did believe in earth demons. Had he not felt the earth quake and the land break open in fire as Seytuh struggled with his chains deep beneath the crust of the earth?

  “You look shaken,” said Lezpet. “Don’t. Haven’t you found out that many things you believed were so, while you lived behind your desert mountains, just aren’t so? And you will find many other things untrue also.”

  Benoni went back to his campfire a very troubled youth. During the next four days, he had time to think. He was busy, but most of what he did was automatic and his brain was free. Could what Lepzet had said be true? That both their religions were false? After all, if, say, Jehovah were the real god, then why was his worship known only in the valley of the Sun? Why not all over the world?

  But Jehovah had once been only known to a very small group, the Hebrews. And they, a desert people, had carried their worship into the land of Canaan and from there all over the world. So, why not the Eyzonuh? Perhaps, it was as the preachers said. Jehovah always preserved a nucleus of faithful. The Eyzonuh had inherited the torch of the true religion from the Hebrews, who must have perished, for no one he had ever met outside the Valley had heard of them. Or could they be in the land from which that gabby veiled man, Aflatu ib Abdu, had come?

  Anyway, the preachers said that the Eyzonuh alone knew the true god. All other peoples worshipped Seytuh. For instance, the Navahos and the Mek.

  But, Benoni told himself, why hadn’t I ever thought of that before? I know very well that the Navahos have never heard of Seytuh, and the Mek worship a god called Thiys. I never thought of that before.

  By the time they had reached Senglwi, he had decided to quit thinking. For the time being, at least. It was easier to live for the moment alone and think only of the fighting ahead.

  They slept that night on the ground outside the breached walls of the conquered city. At dawn, they and their horses boarded a fleet of long low swift galleys. Word had been sent ahead by drum and by heliograph to prepare the boats. Using an extraordinarily large crew of rowers, working day and night shifts, the galleys could make even better time than the horses. They did not have to stop to rest.

  Benoni slept most of that day, for he was tired. But the next day he took his turn at rowing. Slave’s work, true, but the Pwez had so ordered. If the slaves could rest while the freemen broke their backs for several hours, the slaves could row just that much harder when their turn came. And the timer could keep his gavel hammering out the full-speed beat.

  They forged against the current of the broad and muddy Siy River, the Father of Waters, running close to the shore where the current was weakest. Then, they turned right into the mouth of the L’wan river and rowed northward. They left the civilized area and began to pass little villages inhabited by the wild-men of L’wan. Day and night they rowed, working the oars, eating, and sleeping in shifts. Not once did they stop, for they carried all they needed. And the wild-men, seeing this great fleet approach up the river, did not bother. The wild-men either shut the gates of their wooden fortress-villages or else fled into the forests.

  One morning, two hours after dawn, they saw a band of horsemen standing on the left bank. These wore shining armor, and the standard-bearer at their head carried a long pole on which was mounted two wolf-heads.

  Lezpet gave the order, and her galley swung into the bank.

  Their leader, a young lieutenant, clenched his fist to his chest. He said, “Your Excellency! You are only ten miles from Pwawwaw! You may proceed safely on your boats the rest of the way. We control the river at this point.”

  “What has happened so far?” said Lezpet.

  “We did what was ordered. So far, things have turned out as planned. On receiving your message from Kaywo, the Second Army boarded galleys, leaving just enough behind for your forces to use. Part of the army went by land, because we did not have enough craft. We rendezvoused just below Pwawwaw. Part of us attacked Pwawwaw. We forced them into the fort but did not have enough men to storm it. The rest proceeded up the L’wan on the galleys. And a good thing we did.

  “We ran headlong at night into a fleet of Skego soldiers. There was a battle. Every Kaywo fought without thought of surrender. “We sank their galleys and killed every soldier and slave. At a terrible cost, for they fought like demons. We lost every boat but one and all our soldiers except thirty. I, a lieutenant, was the highest left in command.

  “We came back to the besiegers around Pwawwaw and waited for you. But our spies tell us that another Skego fleet is coming fast, is about forty miles up river. And about two thousand Skego cavalry on a forest road not thirty miles away. Twenty miles behind them, a great army.”

  “How many of the Second are besieging Pwawwaw?”

  “Eight hundred and fifty.”

  “There are fifty of you, and a thousand warriors on these boats. A thousand and nine hundred in all. How many Pwawwaw men?”

  “I would estimate about a thousand. But their women will fight by their sides, and they are all excellent archers.”

  “And they will all fight like furies to defend their children,” said Lezpet. “And will be shooting from behind walls. Well, we haven’t time to starve them out. Pwawwaw will have to be stormed inside an hour or two after we begin the attack. We have to get to the vessel of the Hairy Men, take what is valuable, and leave at once. Then, it’ll be a race back to Senglwi.”

  She ordered soldiers aboard, and the galleys raced towards the north. A pigeon was released; it shot off to the southwest, toward its home in Senglwi. The message it carried ordered the garrison to march at once toward the confluence of the Siy and L’wan. There, if the Skego galleys did pursue the Kaywo, they could be ambushed and the fleeing Kaywo galleys could turn and fight.

  Every man aboard took a turn at the oars, rowing with all his strength. The blue L’wan waters turned white before the prows; in an hou
r, the lookout on the lead ship saw the reflection of the sun on the armor of the Second.

  Pwawwaw was the largest village of the L’wan wild-men. It lay next to a river on the left bank and was surrounded by a wall of earth on top of which was another wall of heavy logs. The inhabitants lived within the walls in square log cabins. However, on the big bluff just behind the village was a large log fort, almost a wooden castle. Here, the Pwawwaw had retreated upon first seeing the Kaywo galleys of the Second. The Kaywo had landed and burned the village to the ground. They had also stationed troops near the two gates of the fort on the bluff, just beyond arrow range.

  “If the Pwawwaw had any sense,” said Lezpet, “they would have come out from behind their walls and fought the besiegers. They outnumbered us until now.”

  “The L’wan fear us ever since the Third Army, ten years ago, made a punitive campaign up and down the river valley and burned many villages and took many captives,” said the Usspika. “They learned that undisciplined and unarmored savages cannot stand against Kaywo.”

  “According to the report, the vessel is buried within the site of the fort,” said Lezpet. “Too bad it wasn’t in the village, instead. But that can’t be helped.”

  She gave orders to have all the slaves chained to their benches on the galleys. They were to be provided with food and water so they did not suffer while the fighting went on. But she had the oars removed from the galley, since she did not want to see the slaves rowing away. Leaving only a few soldiers to watch over the slaves, she led her bodyguard and the cavalry of the First Army up the bluff.

  Within a few minutes, she found that tall siege-ladders had been built from wood cut from the trees of the neighboring forest. And many wooden walls on wheels had been built so that the Kaywo might advance behind them close to the fort and be protected from arrow fire.

  After complimenting the commander on his foresight, the Pwez turned her horse to face the assembled soldiers.

  “Sons of the two-headed wolf! The fate of Kaywo lies in your hands! The Skego are coming swiftly in great numbers! We must conquer the Pwawwaw within the next two hours if we are to succeed! This means that we cannot count our costs and that no man must turn back, even to gather his strength for another attack! Once the charge trumpet is blown, we must go forward without pause! Sons of the wolf, you must be wolves!”

  A trumpet blew the long call to action. The soldiers, chanting “Kaywo! Kaywo!” began to push the tall and thick log shields on wheels before them. Behind the pushers came files of man carrying the long and heavy siege-ladders.

  Benoni, with Joel and Zhem, was not among the attackers. He was stationed about fifty yards behind them with a group of three hundred cavalry. Lezpet at their head, they waited until the time was ripe.

  As soon as the mobile walls came within arrow range of the Pwawwaw, a cloud of feathered shafts rose from the many towers and from behind the sharp points of the walls of the fort. Most of these thudded into the Kaywo shields; a few found targets among those who had dropped too far behind their shelters. After two volleys, the Pwawwaw, seeing that they were wasting arrows, ceased fire. But a powerful drumming rose from the fort, and the wild-men shrieked in their strange tongue at the attackers.

  When the wheeled walls had gotten within fifty yards of the Pwawwaw ramparts, they stopped. Now, half of the men behind the mobiles fitted arrows to their bows. The others gripped the ladders and waited. The Pwawwaw, unable to hold themselves any longer, began to shoot. The disciplined Kaywo did not retaliate, despite some losses; they waited until their commander gave the signal.

  He, looking through a peephole in the mobile, chose a time between the volleys. Then, he lowered his hand, a trumpeter gave the assault call, and the soldiers ran out from behind their shelters.

  The archers quickly marshalled themselves into ranks of four deep. At the orders of their sergeants, they began to fire in volleys, rank by rank. And the men carrying the ladders rushed forward to the foot of the twenty-five foot high walls of the fort. Now, the arrows of the Pwawwaw began to find their flesh. Kaywo dropped, several ladders fell to the ground and were not picked up again; so many of their carriers were dead or wounded.

  But the archers of the Kaywo were finding their marks, too. Many a Pwawwaw head projecting over the edge of the pointed logs dropped with an arrow in it or in the chest below the head. And the Pwawwaw suddenly quit sending over concerted fire and resorted to individual initiative.

  The Kaywo gave a loud shout and raised their ladders high and planted the feet on the ground and let the upper part fall against the walls. The Kaywo bowmen now aimed at the areas where the ladders were. When a brave Pwawwaw jumped up from behind his walls to push the ladders back, he suddenly bristled with shafts.

  Lezpet turned on her saddle and motioned to a wagon behind this. This had been especially fitted with a giant log mounted on top and lashed to the frame. The wagon faced backwards, and a team of twelve horses had been hitched to the specially prepared tongue. The back wheels of the wagon were on a rotatable axle; the axle could be turned several degrees to the right or left by means of cables and a huge wheel fixed to the top of the wagon. A soldier crouched on a chair and turned the wheel; he peered through a hole set in the middle of a heavy log shield and was protected by a roof. Since the ramming-log took up most of the space on top of the wagon, the pilot’s shelter and the wheel within were set to one side. Braces had been built on the side of the wagon to support the half of the pilot’s shelter which projected.

  The Pwez rode up to the ram-wagon and spoke a few words to the soldier crouched behind the steering wheel. Then she rode to a position a few yards behind the team that was to push the ram-wagon. Behind her, the three hundred cavalry arranged themselves in ranks of four abreast.

  A trumpeter, at a signal from Lezpet, blew the charge call. Lezpet and some of the officers began striking the flanks of the wagon team with whips and shouted at them. At first, the horses were reluctant to gallop, as if they were afraid of this strange arrangement of pushing, instead of pulling, the wagon. But, under the sting of the lash, they began to pick up speed. Long before the wagon reached the gates of the fort, it was traveling at maximum speed.

  Benoni, in the front rank of the cavalry, could see Lezpet just ahead of him, but the huge bulk of the wagon and the log it carried blocked out much of his view. So it was that he did not, at first, see that some quick-thinking and daring Pwawwaw were opening the gates. Their intention was to swing them open just enough to allow the wagon to come speeding through, and perhaps, a few of the cavalry. Then the gates would be swung shut, and the Kaywo would have lost their only immediate chance to burst the gates apart.

  Lezpet, however, saw at once what the Pwawwaw were planning. She spurred her stallion to race around the team and drew up alongside the wagon. Despite the rumble made by the wagon’s wheels, she managed to shout out an order. And she dropped back.

  The pilot turned the front wheels just in time; the wagon veered; the great butt of the log, projecting six feet ahead of the wagon, crashed into the edge of the right gate and flung it back against the wall, sending the Pwawwaw who were holding it rolling over and over.

  The ram struck the gate and the wall behind it with an impact that tore the gate from its hinges and bent the logs of the wall backwards.

  The horses driving the wagon piled into the rear of the wagon as their traces broke, and they became a kicking, screaming tangle. The pilot house itself was ripped loose and smashed against the gate, killing the pilot.

  But the ramming had not only opened the way to the cavalry; the impact had knocked off the archers on that side of the gate, sent them tumbling to the ground. And reduced the effective fire against the horsemen pouring through the gateway.

  The next ten minutes was a melee. Benoni found himself engulfed in a swirling mob, but the Pwawwaw were all on foot, and he could strike downwards. His sword rose and fell, rose and fell. Kaywo around him went down as arrows fired from the wall struck th
em or their horses: or Pwawwaw leaped up from the ground and dragged them off their saddles.

  But, by then, many of the Kaywo on the siege-ladders had successfully climbed up the ladders, over the walls, and onto the platforms behind the walls. After clearing some areas of the defenders, they fought others while archers began shooting at the Pwawwaw on the ground within the enclosure.

  One of the arrows went through the belly of the chief of the Pwawwaw. The chief, standing on a platform and directing the fighting, toppled off into the swirling mob around him. Another Pwawwaw, a subchief, picked up the fallen standard, a pole with a wild boar’s head at its end. Benoni, his horse shoved against the platform by the weight of the crowd, struck out with his sword and half-severed the subchief’s leg. The standard fell within reach of Benoni; he picked it up, rose in his stirrups the better to be seen by all, and waved the standard.

  The Kaywo cheered and began to press around Benoni to defend him against the Pwawwaw struggling to regain it. Some of the heart seemed to go out of many of the barbarians. Perhaps, in their belief, the standard contained the strength of the Pwawwaw, and he who possessed it possessed their strength.

  Whatever the explanation, the battle went speedily in the Kaywo’s favor. A few minutes later, the Kaywo burst into the big longhouse in the middle of the fort. Here, they found the children and many of the women huddled, expecting to be slaughtered or captured for slavery. But Lezpet had ordered that they be dispossessed as quickly as possible; if the Pwawwaw men saw that they were not harmed, they might not fight so desperately.

  Lezpet shouted orders; the Kaywo managed to form themselves into two lines. Between the avenue made by the lines, the women and children fled for the gates. Many fell and were crushed beneath the panicky crowd, but the majority managed to get outside. From there, they fled towards the woods. Then, the Kaywo regrouped and fought towards the other end of the fort. After reaching it, they unbarred the other gate and admitted the Kaywo outside it.